The Thread of Insanity
by Unesdala-Waya
Summary: Danny's had it hard the past few months, and people soon realize that hero's don't last forever.


Danny was tired.

No scratch that, he was exhausted. It felt like he hadn't slept in weeks. And considering the dark circles that had permanently taken up residence under his eyes, it was most likely true. It took all the strength in his body to just fly into his room before he collapsed onto his bed, praying to God that he would get a few minutes sleep before he had to get up and go to school. He truly wasn't sure how much longer he could keep the charade up. Fighting the ghosts that regularly attacked Amity Park wasn't slowly beginning to kill him. Not only were the attacks becoming more and more frequent, but they were increasing in severity. It had gotten to the point where he was dreading every day and the inevitable pain and injuries. He no longer had to deal with puny ghosts he had had to deal with during his freshmen and sophomore years. The only one of that group that still regularly annoyed him was Skulker. But even he had started coming less and less.

No, the ghosts he dealt with now were almost like a whole new breed of ghost. Many of them had abandoned the use of ecto-blasts in favor of heavy duty machine guns and other modern weapons. It had gotten so bad that Danny had abandoned his old jumpsuit and taken to wearing new Kevlar woven shirts and pants when he was fighting. Even the townspeople had become more hostile, after a fight with one of the new ghosts had accidentally been moved into the children's ward of the Amity Park Hospital. The scared faces of the kids still haunted his dreams, those kids had revered him as a hero, and he had almost killed them. None of the children had been killed thankfully, he didn't think that he could live with himself if that had happened, but one little girl had been hit by a bullet from the other ghost and he hadn't been able to stop it in time. It had hit her in the arm, damaging the muscles and nerves bad enough that she had had to have it amputated. H never told anyone, but he hadn't really slept since then, to many images that pervaded his subconscious. Not just of the little girl, but of all the things that he'd had to resort to during his fights. Things he was most definitely not proud of.

But now lying in bed, he tried not to let the images come to the front of his mind. Praying that for just a few minutes he could get some rest. Unfortunately, fate decided that today would be a fine day to make his life miserable. Just as he thought that he was going to get some sleep, the shill beeping of his alarm clock tore him from his almost unconscious state. He groaned and rolled over, stamping on the urge to fry the infernal device to the depths of satan's realm. He drew a sharp breath when he rolled over on one of his more recent injuries, a set of claw marks across his side, thanks to a new ghost that Danny was sure was a mixture between a chimera and a Rottweiler.

He threw on some clothes, long past caring what he looked like, and threw what little homework he had finished into his bag. He had long since given up on even trying to get his homework done, since whatever time he wasn't fighting was spent either being stitched up or attempting to get some sleep, regardless of the nightmares. His parents were sitting at the kitchen table, working on whatever invention had captured their attention now. Well, his dad was working on the invention, his mom was sitting at the table drinking coffee and reading a magazine that he was pretty sure had something to do with ghost hunting. Danny quickly walked around the table and grabbed a granola bar that was sitting on the counter. Unfortunately, eating was one of the things that had slipped through the cracks dur to his constant ghost fights. He had lost so much weight that his parents had taken him to a doctor to make sure he wasn't anorexic. The doctor had managed to convince them that he didn't need to be placed in a psychiatric hospital thankfully, but he still had to go to therapy every week and his meals were closely regulated.

"Sweetheart," Maddie's voice cut through his thoughts "You need to eat more then that, the doctor said your still underweight." Danny sighed and riffled through the cabinets in search of something fast that would appease his mother. Finally just grabbing a package of pop-tarts and rushing out the door before she tried to count the calories to make sure he wasn't starving himself.

He was still a few blocks from school when he heard the warning bell ring. Sighing in defeat, he kept toward his goal, having to keep all his focus on his one target so that he didn't completely collapse on the sidewalk. He began to really wish that Sam and Tucker still walked to school with him. But since the beginning of the school year, Danny rarely made it on time, and so had told Sam and Tucker that they shouldn't let their school records drop just because of him. They had argued at first, saying that that was becoming the only time that they could talk to him, but they had finally relented, seeing that he wasn't going to give in.

Five minutes later found him in his first period classroom receiving a lecture from the current Physics teacher who's name he hadn't taken the time to learn. She and just about the entire faculty of Casper High thought that he was a drugged up delinquent with authority issues. So they treated him accordingly. After the teacher had finally settled down and given him a detention, (His 17 that month), he located his seat and collapsed, ignoring the worried looks he was receiving from his friends. He didn't dare fall asleep in class anymore, fearing what would happen if he had one of his nightmares in the middle of class. So instead he just slipped in and out of consciousness, always ready to bolt if his ghost sense acted up. He had abandoned trying to have an excuse every time a ghost attacked, instead just walking out the classroom door, many times not coming back for several hours as he fought ghost after ghost.

By the time lunch rolled around, he had been in no less then three major fights and was sporting bruises and cuts in every shape, size, and color. He spent most of the lunch period in a little used bathroom being stitched up by Sam. He hated doing that to her, but she assured him that his health meant more to her the her comfort. Afterwords, he had flown her up to the cafeteria and let her grab a salad while he ate enough of lunch (if they could call what they served 'lunch') to not pass out until he could find something for dinner, assuming he was that lucky. They were both late for gym, but neither of them truly cared. They were sent to the locker rooms to change into their gym clothes. Danny was just finishing when he heard the door slam open. He turned and ducked, ready to defend himself against a rain of bullets of ecto-blasts. But instead, he came face to face with Dash and Kwan who were currently doubled over laughing.

"Did you see that man! He's terrified of us!" Dash laughed at this and grabbed Danny by his shirt collar, tossing him into the locker. A scream bit past his lips as the metal came into contact with one of his carefully stitched up wounds. He stayed on the floor, knowing that it would be easier if he just let the jocks have their fun and then stitched himself back up afterwords. Kwan and Dash were nearly in hysterics watching him as he hunched over.

"Hey Kwan, your turn!' At this, Kwan picked up Danny and ground his back into the vents on the locker, causing Danny's mind to become numb with pain. He barely registered as Dash drove one of his fists into his stomach, right into a gash created by a samurai ghost's sword. It took Danny several seconds to realize that they had stopped both hitting and laughing, and were staring at both his shirt and Dash's fist with horror on their faces. Danny finally summoned enough strength to tilt his head forward and see what had caused the cease in fire. Spreading across his stomach and chest like some kind of morbid tattoo was a sickly mixture of red blood against the green of his jersey, creating some kind of sick looking Christmas decoration. Somewhere deep in his mind, Danny felt the last of his resolve snap at the sight. He looked up at the two jocks, a feral grin on his face. He wrapped his slim fingers around the ones holding him and pried them away, lightly falling the few inches to the ground. Both of the boys seemed to come out of their shock and looked up at him, eyes widening with fear at the sight of his smile. Danny's skinny frame shook with suppressed anger, all the sleepless nights, the horrible names, the injuries, and the brutal bullying slicing through the thin thread keeping him sane. He took a step towards the now scared jocks, lifted his head, and laughed through pure insanity.


End file.
